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Baseball Regional:
Eagles Fall in 11 Innings to Lakers, 3-2, Then Bats Go Silent as
Indianapolis Eliminates Eagles, 1-0 |
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Grand Valley State 3, Ashland 2 Grand Valley State 3, Ashland 2 If the Ashland University Eagles are to win the 2003 North Central Regional crown and advance to the NCAA Division II Baseball Championships in Montgomery, AL, they won’t be blessed with any shortcuts. No, the Eagles are taking the long road home. Saturday (May 17), the Eagles lost in 11 innings to Grand Valley State, 3-2. That was AU’s second straight extra-inning affair, on Friday the Eagles nipped Missouri-St. Louis, 5-4 in 12 frames. To claim the regional crown the Eagles can’t lose again this weekend. The host team, Grand Valley State, is 2-0. Ashland was slated to play Indianapolis late Saturday afternoon. The winner of that game would have to beat Grand Valley State twice on Sunday to advance. Indy stayed alive Saturday morning with a win over Missouri-St. Louis. UMSL had entered the weekend as the region’s top seed. Ashland (37-19-1) was clinging to a 2-1 lead in the top of the ninth inning against GVSU (39-12-1) when Kevin Boyd drilled his fifth homer of the season. The hit was just the second game of the game allowed by AU starter Jon Krugman. The other safety was also a homer, a solo shot by Elijah Beckwith in the fourth inning. The roundtripper was Beckwith’s fourth of the season. Other than those two homers, Krugman didn’t give the Lakers a hit. Krugman, who had won three consecutive starts, went nine innings. He walked five and struck out nine. Sophomore lefty Ryan Douglas, who got the win Friday with three innings of sterling relief, took the loss. He’s 5-3. Douglas went 1 2/3 innings and gave up one run in the top of the 11th inning. He didn’t allow a hit, but his control betrayed him – he walked three. Senior righty Nate Wright got the final out in the 11th inning. Senior shortstop Tim Hinchliffe was 2-for-5 with a double for AU and junior second baseman Mark Kahlenberg was 2-for-4. Sophomore outfielder Allen Ayers and junior outfielder Brandon Cornell drove in a run apiece for AU. Ashland outhit the Lakers, 7-3. AU didn’t commit an error while GVSU had two misplays. Lefty Matt Rafeld started for the Lakers and lasted 9 1/3 innings. A native of Ashland, OH, Rafeld was touched for two runs, one earned, on six hits. He walked two and whiffed two. Rafeld picked up a win against AU last weekend at the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament. He was the pitcher of record in an 8-3 triumph that eliminated AU from the tourney. The win went to Joe Finnerty, who pitched the last 1 2/3 innings. He gave up one hit, struck out two and walked two. Ashland and Indianapolis met earlier this season in Florida. The Greyhounds won that contest, 3-1. Ashland is the defending North Central Region champ. A year ago, AU was 3-0 at the regional tournament. Indianapolis 1, Ashland 0 Now the Ashland University baseball team knows how Gilligan and the Skipper felt. Stranded, that’s what the Eagles were Saturday (May 17) against Indianapolis in an elimination game at the NCAA Division II North Central Regional Tournament at Grand Valley State. The Eagles left 14 runners on base in falling to the Greyhounds, 1-0. The loss, the Eagles’ second of the day, eliminated them from the tournament. Ashland, which won the regional title a year ago, finishes the year 37-20-1. AU’s offensive struggles wiped out a tremendous pitching performance by senior righthander Nate Wright. Wright (9-4) pitched a complete game four-hitter. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out five. The only run he allowed was unearned. In two games on Saturday, AU played a 20 innings. The Eagle pitchers gave up four runs on seven hits. In most instances, that would get AU a pair of wins. But the pitching of Grand Valley State and Indianapolis stopped the Eagles cold. Ashland went scoreless in the last 15 innings it played Saturday. AU stranded 25 runners in the two games. The Eagles had 13 hits in the two contests. The Greyhounds scored the game’s lone run on a sacrifice fly by Matt Guarnieri in the third inning. An error in the frame kept the Indy rally alive. Only two Indianapolis batters could solve Wright. Right fielder Dave Paddock and left fielder Brett McCollum accounted for all the UI hits. Both went 2-for-3. Ashland got a runner to third base with two outs in the ninth inning, but that’s where the threat died, 90 feet from home plate. The inning began with a single by right fielder Bryce Bednarczyk. A sacrifice bunt by junior center fielder Brandon Cornell advanced him to second and a groundout by senior Butch Kaufman got Bednarczyk to third. Indy relief pitcher Chad Kauffman ended the uprising by striking out AU catcher Josh Gaub. Chase Huotari, who went the first seven innings, got the win, raising his record to 4-1. He quieted the Eagles on five hits. He walked three and struck out nine. Kauffman earned his third save of the year, going two innings and allowing one hit. The win upped Indy’s record to 39-23. Bednarczyk and senior first baseman Chris Skibinski had two hits each for the Eagles. |